Doctor Who Unbound - Murder of the Dragon Rider
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Hiccup Haddock was destined for great things, but only as long as he survives. (He Jests at Scars...universe)


Disclaimer - I don't own either Doctor Who, the TV or the audio dramas, or How to Train your Dragon.

A/N - The version of the Doctor in this story is actually the Doctor's dark self, the Valeyard from the Big Finish's audio drama "He Jests at Scars..." who succeeded in stealing the Doctor's regenerations. Now travelling the universe to push history the way he wants, the Valeyard won't care for the consequences until its too late.

* * *

Murder of the Dragon Rider.

"So, where are we going to now, Doctor?" Ellie asked as she walked into the TARDIS console room.

She wasn't particularly surprised to find him inside the console room. She had found him in here studying the data-tapes they had pulled from the Imperial computers, and he had also done a lot of research into the Death Star though she had no idea what his long term plans were with the work. In truth, Ellie genuinely did not want to know because she was terrified, terrified of knowing the answer, but more terrified for her own wellbeing.

The Valeyard had been really threatening of late. The way he brought up the ideas of how he could just drop her off back in her own time and let her die in a horrific manner frightened her.

When she had walked into the console room, Ellie was fully expecting to see him studying the Death Star plans again for anything that might help in whatever quest he planned to pursue. The problem was Ellie was always the only one to truly know what the Valeyard was doing at the last minute, in fact, Ellie had the distinct impression the Time Lord _didn't know _himself what he had in mind half of the time.

The Valeyard winced at the name, but he pushed it aside. "Hmm?" he pretended to look up questioningly as if he had just recalled that his 'companion' was in the room with him. "Oh, we are heading to Earth, my dear," he said, glancing down at the console to ensure the TARDIS was heading towards the right space/time coordinates; he had been doing a lot of work on the TARDIS's navigational systems and the Matrix to ensure the time machine travelled to where he wanted to go, but he was still making his adjustments as time passed.

So far, he was satisfied with his work, but there was still room for improvement.

"Sounds great," Ellie brightened up considerably on hearing the news, though her smile dimmed slightly, "What for?"

"We have work to do. I have found something…_intriguing _about a particular point in your worlds' history," the Valeyard said, looking at the console with an intensity Ellie took to mean that the Valeyard was telling the truth. She had learnt and gathered during her time with him that although he was not particularly nice, he did enjoy a good mystery.

"Oh, what?" she asked curiously.

"We are travelling to a number of islands that are part of an archipelago in your worlds' northern hemisphere, in the Scandinavian regions of your world, but did you know these islands do not exist on any official map?" the Valeyard asked rhetorically, knowing that she wouldn't have known that before now.

Ellie gaped in surprise. "What? But if we're heading to islands that exist in the past, what happened to them?"

The Valeyard shrugged. "Who knows?" he asked in a tone that said that he didn't care either way. "Climate change could have been a factor. There could be other factors that meant the islands in question were never placed on any official maps but in any case, the fact they exist at all means that they are worth a visit."

The Valeyard watched Ellie closely. Inwardly he was studying her expressions. He had noticed she had become more meek though she was a little bit more curious about his motives. And more than a little bit uneasy about his actions, but he wasn't worried about that; if Ellie tried something stupid, he would be ready for her. In any case, the woman broadcasted her thoughts in the same way as a sieve leaked water, so if she crossed him then he would deal with her in good time.

He didn't want to. It had taken him a while to break the girl in and ensure she the tasks he wanted to be completed, and while he was virtually immortal now he had taken over the Doctor's entire regeneration cycle - past and future - the Valeyard didn't have any patience for human stupidity, and he felt the time it would take to break in a new pet would cause problems.

Ellie studied the Valeyard almost nervously. In all the time she had known the Valeyard he had never just wanted to visit a place or time without a good reason, indeed he had been going back into his own timeline to clear up the mistakes he claimed his other selves had caused over the years. She had a feeling whatever it was that was making him visit this place now, it had nothing to do with a desire to learn. The Valeyard had been nipping backwards and forwards in time, rewriting moments of his past - she could understand the reasons he had destroyed the Daleks, from what she had learnt about them the Valeyard had good reason to want to see them wiped out, and she doubted his boasts he could merely use the TARDIS to travel back and put things right because he wanted too, so she doubted he wanted to visit the Daleks and restore them. She had a feeling the Valeyard was going to cause even more destruction, and it frightened her a great deal since she had seen a sample of just how far he was willing to go.

"Okay," she said, trying to hide her innermost thoughts although she knew it would do little good. She had come to know the Valeyard was telepathic and he genuinely didn't care about little things like privacy. "So how come you have only just found these islands?" she went on, wondering just how much the Valeyard knew.

"I was just curious," the Valeyard replied shortly, making her suspect the Time Lord had started to become tired of studying those data-tapes after all. "In any case, I felt we could take a break."

He was lying, of course. Ellie was right, he had grown bored with the data-tapes although he had learnt a great deal from them, and he had collected a number of notes about what he would do, and he had already prepared several plans to put into action for later. When he had taken a break, he had discovered the existence of the Barbaric Archipelago, and the existence of the Viking-Dragon war, (the name of the archipelago and some of the other terms they used were truly laughable) which had fascinated him immediately. The Valeyard had studied the timeline of the war, and he had determined that there was a temporal nexus that would be relatively easy to change….

* * *

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third was terrified while he and Toothless did their best to tire the Queen dragon out; granted he had been frightened when he had first managed to tame Toothless in those early days because the Night Fury who was the best friend he had ever known, and that moment where he and Astrid had flown out during the night after she had discovered what he had been doing behind the backs of the village and discovered what was really happening in the Viking-Dragon war which had been going on for the last three centuries and learnt the war was not as clear-cut as the Vikings believed, he had been frightened for his life as well as Toothless's life when the village found out.

But the fear he was feeling right now as the massive dragon that governed the nest by terrifying the other dragons into stealing food from the villages in the archipelago made all those other occasions look like nothing. While he was happy things between himself and his father had sorted themselves out after Stoick saved him and Toothless from that burning ship, Hiccup couldn't help but curse his father for getting this dragon out; it may have had the benefit of making his peers see the consequences of trying to attack the nest.

_They certainly know now, _he thought to himself darkly as he flew Toothless high in the sky. Together the pair of them had already attacked the Queen's thick hide, though Hiccup had no idea if the Night Fury's plasma blasts actually penetrated through the hide of the Queen, he didn't care; he had wanted the Queen's attention and he had it. Together with Toothless, Hiccup had forced the Queen to chase him and his dragon; where Toothless was smaller and easily the better flier, the Queen made up with that by simply using brute power.

Hiccup was only slightly surprised by how the Queen had managed to take to the air so easily; when he had gotten a good look at the dragon when she had taken flight, he had been momentarily worried that her obesity would hinder her flight, but her wings managed to deal with it, but he honestly had no idea if she had morning and night flights when she was pigging away at all the food she had her 'subjects' steal. Hiccup quashed the anger he felt as his mind conjured the memory of the Queen killing those two dragons during the unexpected visit he and Astrid had taken; this wasn't the time to get distracted.

He didn't need to see what the other dragon was doing as they flew higher into the clouds which seemed to have become darker and darker the higher they flew, he could hear the sound of laboured breathing and the loud wing beats. Once he and Toothless were in the sky they waited for the Queen to see where they had hidden.

Hiccup had to squint himself while he guided Toothless around the massive obese dragon as she looked around for them both, but the lighting was extremely bad, and he could only just make out her sheer size while she looked around for her two enemies. Hiccup waited until they were right behind the Queen before he leaned in and whispered to his Night Fury, "Okay, bud, now!"

Toothless fired a plasma burst towards the Queen dragon. Hiccup had to throw up a hand to block out the bright ball of superheated flame as it flew towards the Queen, and he saw an explosion. Wincing as he heard the Queen let out a pain-filled bellow that echoed throughout the clouds, Hiccup urged Toothless on so fast and they flew around the Queen, firing one blast after another while diving towards the dragon so fast he was sure he could count the number of scales on her back, each time making the Dragon Queen roar with rage and frustration.

Finally, the Queen Dragon had had enough. Hiccup wondered whether the roars were because of pain, anger, and exhaustion, but he was willing to bet it was a mixture of the three. He was still amazed the Queen was capable of flying at all after being in the nest for so long, but because he had so little knowledge of what she did all day he couldn't be sure what she did with her time, but while he hoped she was getting tired he knew she was a dangerous enemy still.

Hiccup winced when he heard the deafening sound of the dragon's roar of frustration, but he jumped in shock when cloud near him suddenly burst into flame, and he realised that the Dragon Queen was blasting the clouds around her at random. While Hiccup was understandably worried and nervous the flames would incinerate him and Toothless, he was just glad Toothless was fast enough to avoid the flames.

Feeling the heat behind him, Hiccup turned around. "Watch out!" he shouted as a stream of flames sped towards them, and Toothless put on a burst of speed when he sensed the impending danger speeding towards them. But it was too late.

Hiccup sighed with relief as the Night Fury managed to dodge the flames, but his nose caught a burning, smouldering smell. He turned his head around and looked back. To his horror, the prosthetic tail-fin he had made for Toothless was on fire. The leather was being burnt away leaving the thin and hollow metal rods. "Okay, times' up," Hiccup declared, holding down the panic he was feeling at the sight of incinerated tail-fin he had made to help Toothless fly once more after he'd torn it away in the first place. He pushed the panic aside as best as he could; it wouldn't help right now, all he had to do now was just carry on with the mad plan he had cobbled together with Astrid on their way to the nest as quickly as they could.

"Let's see if this works," Hiccup said as he guided Toothless around in a U-turn to fly back over to her, wishing he was more hopeful but with the tail-fin practically gone, he would need every second.

After Toothless shot upwards with as much control as he could muster and dart back towards the Queen, Hiccup hollered while he spent a few moments studying the dragon's body for any more weak spots they could exploit; the angrier she became, the easier this would be for them, "That the best you can do?" he taunted while Toothless flew so close to the Queen's head, Hiccup swore he saw the dragon's multiple eyes widen before she tried to eat them. Hiccup winced at both the stink of the Queen's breath which was mixed with three hundred years worth of food intake and the stench of her internal gases that was much much stronger and more potent than even the Deadly Nadder and the loud _snap _the mouth made when it closed tight, but Toothless was too fast for her.

Hiccup blew out a breath, relieved he and his friend hadn't been eaten alive, but there was still time for that while Toothless dove downwards, and the stench of burning leather reached his nose. He could hear the Queen dragon roar and the sound her massive wings were making as they beat the air as she chased after them.

As they were flying back through the clouds towards the beach of the island, Hiccup heard a strange wheezing, groaning sound, but it was over quickly. One look at Toothless as the Night Fury broke his concentration on the dive downwards as he looked around quizzically for the source of the sound.

"You heard it, too?" Hiccup whispered, worried now and for a moment he wondered if there was another dragon in the air but he couldn't see any sound of another dragon. Toothless warbled, but otherwise, he didn't make another sound until they heard the Queen bellow again behind them, even closer now.

"Stay with me, bud," he said loudly to Toothless even as he felt the tail-fin pedal shift with the roar, "we're good. Just a little bit longer…!"

Hiccup looked around sharply when he thought he had just seen a light flashing nearby, but there was nothing there, but the clouds were obscuring his view. Some of them were so pitch dark in colour it was virtually impossible for him to get a good look through the gloom.

"Hold, Toothless," he said down to his dragon, deciding to push the strange sound out of his head since they still had a job to do, seeing he was too busy concentrating on their dive downwards even while he could feel the hot breath of the Dragon Queen behind him, and as the seconds ticked by, the heart was becoming hotter and hotter. _She's getting ready to fire, _Hiccup thought to himself, _good. A few more seconds…._

"NOW!" He yelled and pulled Toothless back so the Night Fury was turned around, and he fired a plasma bolt into the Queen's wide-open mouth which ignited the Queens' internal gases and set them alight. Hiccup looked around and saw that they had cleared the clouds, and as he looked at the Queen he saw the dragons' eyes widen with horror as she now took in the situation. She instantly tried to brake hard, but her wings ripped open as he body burned on the inside beyond her ability to control which wasn't helped in the least by the damage her wings had sustained earlier from Toothless' earlier attacks. Hiccup could see the fire becoming brighter and brighter in the Queen's mouth while the wings which had been so badly damaged could now no longer stop or slow her descent towards the ground.

Hiccup managed to pull Toothless out of the dive, but as he was flying the Night Fury upwards, already planning on landing so then he could take a look at the tail-fin, he heard Toothless suddenly shriek with pain before blood suddenly spurted out of the right side of his head as though something had exploded inside!

Alarmed, Hiccup looked at his friend as the Night Fury writhed around briefly, and to his horror Hiccup realised that his Night Fury was actually dead, and what he was seeing was the reflex action, before he was still and he began falling downwards through the air towards the ground, but then Hiccup suddenly cried out as something seemed to have exploded inside his own chest, and then everything began to go black. He realised he was dead, and that his dragon was gone as well.

It was over for him before he had even started. He didn't want to go. He had so much to do, so much to offer.

Now it was never going to happen.

_I love you, Astrid, _he thought to himself as he thought about the beautiful blonde girl before everything just went black.

* * *

"I thought we were coming to visit the past," Ellie accused the Valeyard as he calmly walked back to the console and dematerialised the TARDIS and sent it back into the Time Vortex.

"We are," the Valeyard said as he calmly adjusted the controls. "We will be travelling around the archipelago, but in any case, we have just altered a large amount of established history. Why are you so concerned, Ellie? You never have been before," he said in a testing manner.

"I just don't understand why you killed him," Ellie argued, seeing through the manner and she dialled down her feelings on the matter. "What was so special about that kid?"

"That kid as you described him would have had only a small amount of impact on the archipelago," the Valeyard said, though truthfully that wasn't true. He had altered history to ensure the boy, Hiccup Haddock, a ridiculous name if there ever was one, died on the same day he ended the Viking-Dragon war. With his death, and with the meagre knowledge he had given to that blonde girl, the people of Berk would have an even harder time to embrace living with the dragons, if they ever did; there was still a chance the boy's father, the chief of the tribe, would continue on his meaningless vendetta against the dragons.

Or he would in memory of his son's death and his brave, heroic sacrifice, but it would take time, if ever before the Vikings learnt to live with the dragons.

Either way, it made no difference, but since the boy would have a hand in banishing the dragons because the world and humanity were just not going to live with them, his death would have an impact on history before it's time.

The Valeyard took a brief look at the console while he felt the cool chill go down his spine as he felt the timelines shift even more. He knew the Time Lords had probably detected the change in history by now, but he was not concerned; with his access to the Matrix, there was nothing they could do. In any case, if they wanted to stop him, they should have begun ages ago.

The Valeyard decided he and Ellie needed time to unwind. He turned to his companion and noticed she still looked uneasy. "But despite my changes to history…," he began, deciding to put business aside for now, "how would you like to see more of the dragons?"

Without waiting for her to reply, the Valeyard re-set the controls.

* * *

Mel stood close to the two Time Lords as they watched as the Valeyard changed history again, but whatever they were saying to one another was drowned out by the shock she was feeling.

_Dragons had existed? _

Oh, as a child Mel had heard all the stories about the dragons, but seeing them as flesh and blood creatures as diverse as cats and dogs, and flying without any signs of magic, it was a surprise. As she had watched a group of humans - Vikings, she had realised - attacking the side of a cliff, and those smaller dragons had escaped in fright, she had been so surprised she had ignored Vansell's snide observation about humanity. But when that massive dragon had burst through the rock wall and attack the Vikings, destroying their ships and stranding them there, while it had smashed through war machines the Vikings had brought with them, and when she took in their weapons, she knew the Vikings had really come prepared for this fight.

She knew that dragons were important in Viking culture, but seeing that the Vikings had actually been _fighting _them was something she had not expected; during her time with the Doctor, the real Doctor and not the monster she had seen take his regenerations and his TARDIS, she had encountered the Daleks and their sick creator Davros, a race of plant people, but she had never, ever expected to find out that dragons were real at one point in time.

Mel had watched amazed as a group of Viking _teenagers _by the look of them came flying on dragons of their own. _Was that possible? Is it possible to tame a dragon? _she had thought at the time before she had kicked herself; if they could fly dragons, then it must be true. She watched as the teenagers provided a distraction for another boy, a smaller and thinner boy than them, and rescue a chained up black dragon which looked like it had a few bat-like traits, as well as a few cat-like traits as well.

Mel had seen this boy and the black dragon attack the larger one and made it follow them through sea stacks where the large bulk of the monster smashed them to pebbles, before the two took it in to the air into the dark clouds, and then attack it and damaged its wings. She had seen the familiar light and heard the characteristic sound of the Doctor's TARDIS.

No, the _Valeyard's TARDIS now,_ she thought bitterly, as the TARDIS appeared nearby though what the twisted monster was going to do, she didn't know. She had watched in horror as the boy and the dragon fired that burst of energy into the large dragons' mouth which had a hand in its death, but the boy and the dragon were both killed. She had watched as the Valeyard aimed a long, futuristic weapon at them and fired twice, killing both the boy and the dragon.

And now the effects it was having was obvious. She had been near Vansell and the new President but until he actually began to lead would she respect the Time Lord.

"What's happening?" she asked over the alarms, knowing the Valeyard had once more done something to change history.

"History is being changed," Vansell said briefly, glancing at the Lord President in growing fear. "Time is rippling, a new timeline is forming outside our predicted events."

"You mean, that boy and that battle were integral to the timeline?" Mel asked hesitantly; she might not be a Time Lord and she lacked the Doctor's knowledge, but she had picked up enough to get some idea of what the Time Lords were talking about.

"Yes," Vansell replied, not looking happy he was having to explain this to what he considered a member from a lesser species. "The boy and his…beast were meant to bring stability to that region while it changed, but with their deaths, time has been damaged."

Mel closed her eyes. _Why did you run back for the Valeyard, Doctor? Why couldn't you have left him in there? All this could have been avoided if you had._

* * *

What do you think?


End file.
